My first impression of Siuntio
We moved to that small church village in the late summer of 1961. We did rent an old wooden house that had used before to be the village pharmacy. We drove there with a large truck, full of with our furniture and belongings along a village road, which was shaded by large oaks, next to the medieval Suitia Castle, and moved to the old centre of the village.
At that time there was a church, 3 banks, 3 shops, a post office, an old town hall, a new and old pharmacy and 2 dwelling houses. The vast majority of Siuntio's population was Swedish at the time. I liked much the beautiful nature of the neighbourhood, which was filled with history. It felt as if time had stopped or I had moved partly back in time.
When I visited the high cliff next to the house, I found three old pile full of stones, former Viking tombs. In those had been found the human bones in boats with supplies, money, swords etc buried together.
From the top of the cliff, there was a magnificent view of the woods, the church and the large mansions over the fields on both sides of the Kirkkojoki river, which started to flow from far away.
Already in Lohja we had got meat at the dining table fishing with hook and lines, spinning rods, nets and fish traps. That's why I went to get a closer look at the enclosed Kirkkojoki river (Church river), which was about 60 m from our apartment. I made a small fish trap and put it in the river for the night. In the morning a pike and a few perch were found there. I was surprised by the abundant fish in the river, even though the water in the river was very muddy and cloudy.
Later I also got a lobster sized crab from the river in crab trap. It had a fixed scissor length of 12.5 cm and a body length of more than 20 cm from the tail, 34 cm in overall length. It is probably the largest river crab ever obtained in Finland (?) The river had several different species of fish, muskrat and mink. Once upon a time, such a gorgeous colourful little bird, kingfisher, was sitting on a tree branch and dived into the river after a small fish. It was fabulously coloured.
I also saw large flocks of pheasants. Finnish farmers, Osuuspankki customers, provided us with several sacks of grain for feed pheasants in winter. Once on a cold frost day, I watched 34 big pheasant roosters and about a dozen female pheasants eating grains just outside the large window in our living room.The centre of the village was very peaceful and idyllic, the scenery was picturesque and fabulous.
The level of teaching was poor
I was very disappointed with the level of education at the civic school. I had worked hard at school in Lohja. I especially liked history as a subject. To my dismay, at Siuntio Finnish-language school, I had to start reading the same history textbook that I had already read in Lohja a year earlier.
I'm the type that want constantly learn new things. Now I had to start reading the same history textbook from the beginning again. It was very depressing to me. In addition, I was beaten during breaks for about two weeks every day and derided as Hurri (a derogatory name from the Swedes) because my name is completely Swedish even though my native language is Finnish.
At that time I didn't even speak Swedish. Sometimes I have time to run to the big tree after a break and climb it to safety. I was afraid to go to school and sometimes told my parents about it.
The picture is from the combined class of 6th and 7th grade of Siuntio Civic School. I am a short-haired back row, fourth from the left. I stood in the picture on my toes to look taller than myself. My stepmother Siiri was a hairdresser and always cut my hair too short. My sister Pirkko Anteroinen is in the middle row, fourth from the right. She went one class higher than me, 7th grade. I went grade 6.
Finally, Siiri asked Pirkko to talk about me at school so that the violence and beatings against me must stop so that I dare go school and can study in peace. Pirkko raised the issue before the arrival of teacher Pauli Kuhmonen in a class with 6th and 7th grades combined into the same class.
Pirkko then asked a strong 7th grade student, alias Kari Vuori, to guard me against the 7th grade pupil, who had repeatedly mistreated and hit me. Kari commanded the student to come instantly to me and apologize me publicly. Kari threatened that otherwise he shall spank him!
The student was frightened and walked with shame on his face to me, in front of all the other students, and apologized to me. I forgave him. After that, I was never beaten again at that school. Thanks for Kari! When I was in 6th grade, I was still small and weak, and the older students it was easy to bully me.
My older brother Lars mocked me as "metre boy" because then he was much taller than me. Over the years, however, I grew taller than all my brothers. Then Lars was ashamed. You see, even a little boy can grow tall! In the army I was already 185cm tall and Lars was "only" 176cm.
Kari received a payment
The two classes were at the same time in the gym for a singing test there. I had practiced a very Swedish national anthem called "You lofty and strong Nordic country…". I sang it right according to sheet music. The song had taught by a smart Finnish-Swedish song teacher, woman, Marita Strandberg. She played the piano and said after my singing, “You sang really well! Sing the same song again!”
However, I was so shy in that big class that I couldn't sing, but I left the class feeling ashamed. I was laughed at and always mocked for my bad singing voice. That's why my self-esteem was really bad. I had got only grade 6 of singing in Lohja. I was surprised when Marita gave me grade 8 in my school certificate of singing. I was even more surprised when she later visited us at our home hair salon and asked why I refused to sing again in that song test? So she still remembered the situation after years.
That Marita's visit at our home hair salon happened years later. I said I was so shy and that I had never before been encouraged to sing. She said she would have wanted to give me grade 9, but I should have sung that song again, because raising grade from 6 to 9 required repetition, according to her evaluation principles.
Marita was a smart and wise believer. I asked her about her relationship with her Creator and Saviour years later. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father, having given me so many genuinely Christian teachers! Once when classes 6 and 7 were back together for the same singing class in the same gym, I came to the class at the very last minute. I saw only one free chair under the wall poles for climbing and went to sit there on the chair.
After noticing that Kari had climbed up to the poles above the chair, I thought the chair was already reserved for him. I asked if he had reserved it (?) He said yes, but asked me to sit there because he was going to stand on the poles for an hour.
After a while his hands were tired, perhaps due to sweating. His hands grip from the poles slipped and he fell upside down to my lap. I instinctively took him to my lap so he wouldn't get hurt or hit his knees on the floor. He instinctively stuck to me like a drowning one clings on a life buoy.
He looked at me and asked, "Did I hurt you?" I said, "Not at all, and I hope you didn't hurt yourself." Everyone was staring at us and I was confused because I admired Kari and it was very exceptional to hold him in my arms! If I hadn't been sitting on that hard wooden chair like a cushion, Kari would probably have hurt itself by falling on it. He didn't get any bruise!
In that situation, I believe he had received a payment from Adonai Yeshua for the help he has given me in the past. Kari was smart, noble and right-minded. He was also considered the most handsome of the school's youngsters, the best athlete, also a skilled footballer and the fastest 100m runner. He also won by far all of the 100m sprinters in the Finnish and Swedish-speaking schools in athletics competitions in Siuntio.
Of such good signs, many of my school friends are likely to recognize him. I also had great sympathy for Kari when I heard from my dad that Kari's father had died in the barn when a big bull pierced him with horn. Cross-country (running in nature) would have been the only sport in which I would have been successful at that time, because I had won the silver spoon prize in Lohja. At the school of Siuntio, this kind of sport was not practiced at all.
Pertti fell very dangerously!
Once as we climbed on the steep cliff next to the old pharmacy, which had a steep drop of about 10 m, I heard Pertti shout, "Look at me Lefa!" I saw to my horror he had climbed to the top of a big juniper on a sharp rock protrusion. There was only a thunder when the juniper trunk broke and Pertti began to fall.
Then I shouted, "Lord Jesus, help Pertti!" He held the juniper top part in his hands. The fall was slowed down by the branches of the deciduous trees below, and he fell on his feet on the rock without any injury! HalleluYah!
I escaped father by running at night
At that time we were still living in the old Pharmacy in Siuntio. One evening father asked me to eat the rest of leftover pasta on my little sister's plate. Because both my little sisters were given the opportunity to go to college, which had been denied me and Pirkko, I was angry to dad. I cried out, "I don't eat leftovers from others!" As a guarantee, I hit my fist on the table.
Unluckily, my fist hit a fork arm that tossed a large pile of pasta up to the ceiling. Everyone stared as the macaroni began to drop from the ceiling to the table one by one. I was stared it too. Then, in turn, dad got angry, which was very rare and said, "Where's the stick?" and went to the hall to get it. I was scared for him and had just time enough to sneak past him out into the darkness of the night.
Dad came after me and caught me running. He grabbed me by the ear and started to draw me back home. I asked him on the way, "Are you going to send me to the world uneducated?" Dad didn't hit me, but he understood the cause of my anger. That's why he arranged for me to go to the engineering school entrance exams, which I'll tell you later.
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